SpaceX Scrubs ISS Run Over Leaky Rocket

A Helium leak on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has once again delayed the company's run to the ISS.

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UPDATE:
SpaceX on Monday scrubbed the launch of a rocket with reusable landing legs as part of an official cargo run to the International Space Station (ISS), the second cancellation of liftoff for its CR-3 supply mission. "Today's launch has been scrubbed due to a Helium leak on Falcon 9's first stage. A fix will be implemented by the next launch opportunity on Friday, April 18, though weather on that date isn't ideal," SpaceX said in a statement.

Original Story:
SpaceX on Monday is set to make a second attempt at launching a rocket with reusable landing legs as part of an official cargo run to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX's unmanned CRS-3 supply mission to the ISS, the company's third official cargo run to the space station for NASA, is now planned for 4:58 p.m. Eastern. You can watch a live feed leading up to the final countdown to liftoff on Space.com beginning at 3:45 p.m.

If all goes well when the Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule it is carrying lift off from a pad Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the booster will sprout landing legs after separating from the capsule before hopefully being guided to a controlled, "soft landing" in the sea. Though SpaceX isn't expected to try landing its official mission rockets on the ground any time soon, testing the Falcon 9 landing legs during the upcoming ISS supply run will mark an important step in the company's eventual plan to use reusable, Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicles for future missions.

SpaceX has been testing a reusable rocket design, dubbed Grasshopper, for a couple of years, sending the experimental rocket to higher altitudes over time before gently guiding it back down to its launch pad and even performing sideways maneuvers in the skies above the company's South Texas testing site.

The plan to test landing legs and guidance system during the current mission is certainly ambitious, but SpaceX told media over the weekend that it actually has a fairly low expectation of success.

"If we can pull this off we'll be super-thrilled," SpaceX vice president of mission assurance Hans Koenigsmann was quoted as saying by Space.com. Koenigsmann said the mission has just a 30 to 40 percent chance of success.

After the original launch attempt was cancelled, NASA officials said a "type of oily residue" was discovered in an unpressurized part the Dragon capsule, which had been packed with more than 5,000 pounds of provisions, spare parts, and science experiments for the ISS. NASA cancelled the launch out of concern that the substance could vaporize in space and damage delicate Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) equipment, one of about 150 science experiments the Dragon is carrying up to the orbiting space station.

OPALS is an experimental high-speed communications system utilizing sensitive optics and a prototype laser that could be damaged by the stray substance if exposed to it.

The CRS-3 mission is the third official supply run to the ISS for SpaceX, which completed its first run to the space station in October 2012. The private firm is under a Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA to fly a dozen such missions over the next several years and has also won major contracts with the space agency for science missions and the development of next-generation manned spaceflight vehicles.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.
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